When John Wesley Powell led an expedition down the Colorado River and through the Grand Canyon
in 1869, he was confronted with a daunting landscape. At its highest
point, the serpentine gorge plunged 2,400 meters (8,000 feet) from rim
to river bottom, making it the deepest canyon in the United States. In
just 6 million years, water had carved through rock layers that
collectively represented more than 2 billion years of geological
history, nearly half of the time Earth has existed.“The wonders of the Grand Canyon cannot be adequately represented in
symbols or speech,” Powell wrote in his log. “The resources of the
graphic art are taxed beyond their powers in attempting to portray its
features.” Powell was, of course, seeing the canyon mainly from river level;
there was no technology that provided views of the landscape from space
then. If there had been, he would have seen something similar to what
the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on the Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) did on March 29, 2013. LDCM is an Earth-observing satellite that launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in February 2013.In the image above (top), the Colorado River traces a line across the arid Colorado Plateau.
Treeless areas are beige and orange; green areas are forested. The
river water is brown and muddy, a common occurrence in spring when
melting snows cause water levels to swell and pick up extra sediment. The black line that follows the river in the upper right side of the image is comprised of shadows.One of the geological features that attracted Powell’s attention was a
set of rapids at mile 183 of the canyon. Powell called the rapids Lava Falls (middle image), a reference to old lava flows that spilled from the Uinkaret Volcanic Field just north of the river. When lava flowed into the river, it left dams
that were hundreds of meters high in some cases. These dams blocked the
river and created huge reservoirs until the Colorado found ways around
them. “Just imagine a river of molten rock running down into a river of
melted snow. What a seething and boiling of the waters; what clouds of
steam rolled into the heavens,” Powell wrote of Lava Falls. Because of its name, many assume that the rapids at Lava Falls are
caused by debris from lava flows that entered the river from the north.
In fact, material from periodic landslides from Prospect Canyon to the
south are the main source of debris, according to research conducted by
U.S. Geological Survey scientists. It took Powell months to navigate the gorge. By the time he had arrived in the area that is now Lake Mead,
his men were weary and four had deserted. For water and sediment
transported by the Colorado, the journey is much quicker; it takes just a
handful of days. The flow of sediment into Lake Mead (bottom image)
from the Colorado deposits a thick layer of material on the bottom of
the reservoir. At the mouth of the Colorado, the area that has seen the
most accumulation, sonar studies have shown that sediment thickness exceeds 80 meters (262 feet).Note that this image is considered engineering data—data that is
helping scientists and engineers ensure that the satellite and its
instruments are operating as designed. Once LDCM completes its check-out
period and becomes fully operational for science, NASA will pass
control of the satellite to the U.S. Geological Survey and LDCM will be
re-named Landsat 8.Read more about LDCM’s birthplaces—the locations in the United States
where Landsat missions have been conceived, built, and controlled—by clicking here.

A girl sang a song in the temple's chorus,About men, tired in alien lands,About the ships that left native shores,And all who forgot their joy to the end.

Thus sang her clean voice, and flew up to the highness,And sunbeams shined on her shoulder's white --And everyone saw and heard from the darknessThe white and airy gown, singing in the light.

And all of them were sure, that joy would burst out:The ships have arrived at their beach,The people, in the land of the aliens tired,Regaining their bearing, are happy and reach.

And sweet was her voice and the sun's beams around....And only, by Caesar's Gates -- high on the vault,The baby, versed into mysteries, mourned,Because none of them will be ever returned.

Don't fear death

Don't fear death in earthly travels.Don't fear enemies or friends.Just listen to the words of prayers,To pass the facets of the dreads.

Your death will come to you, and neverYou shall be, else, a slave of life,Just waiting for a dawn's favor,From nights of poverty and strife.

She'll build with you a common law,One will of the Eternal Reign.And you are not condemned to slowAnd everlasting deadly pain.

Gamajun, the Prophetic Bird

On waters, spread without end,Dressed with the sunset so purple,It sings and prophesies for land,Unable to lift the smashed wings' couple...The charge of Tartars' hordes it claims,And bloody set of executions,Earthquake, and hunger and the flames,The death of justice, crime’s intrusion...And caught with fear, cold and smooth,The fair face flames as one of lovers’,But sound with prophetic truthThe lips that the bloody foam covers!...